


Ink and Sky

by Bitterblue



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 08:52:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5450699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bitterblue/pseuds/Bitterblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fallout 4/His Dark Materials crossover. Piper meets the sole survivor, reimagined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ink and Sky

Whatever she'd been expecting, Diamond City isn't it.

It makes sense, now that she's here: Diamond City is a transformed Fenway Park, a safe haven within bright green walls. The idea that people flocked to this place to watch others play would probably sound absurd to the people inside it now. In the devastated places she's been since leaving the vault, Nora hasn't seen anyone doing something as idle as playing. It's hard to imagine anyone having the time when constantly fighting each other and the irradiated earth for survival.

There is a woman outside the gate as Nora approaches, and she is decidedly not playing. She's arguing with the speaker box, her daemon a small inky cat bristling beside her. Careful not to startle her, Nora stops, taking in the rolled-down gate and the woman's angry posture. Cesious, on her shoulder, watches the cat daemon warily.

"What do you  _mean_ , you can't open the gate? Stop playing around, Danny! I'm standing out in the open out here, for crying out loud." Her tone is terse. Nora doesn't think she's noticed her.

"I got orders not to let you in, Miss Piper. I'm sorry. I'm just doing my job." The voice over the speaker box is young, apologetic, but the woman—Piper—just makes an irritated noise in response, her cat daemon growling softly.

"Just doing your job? Protecting Diamond City means keeping us out, is that it? 'Oh, look, it's the scary reporter!'" She waves her hands at the speaker, though it's hard to tell if there's a video feed or not. " _Boo_!"

"I'm sorry, but Mayor McDonough's really steamed, Piper. Saying that whole article you wrote was lies. The whole city's in a tizzy."

Both Piper and her daemon step closer to the speaker with a pair of irritated yowls. "You open this gate right now, Danny Sullivan! I live here! You can't just lock me out!" She sighs heavily, turning away from the speaker and noticing Nora for the first time. Hazel eyes rake down her body, taking in the jumpsuit, her dirt- and tear-streaked face, and Cesious fluttering nervously, his claws digging into her shoulder for better purchase. Nora half expects her to start yelling again.

Instead, she leans towards Nora, a speculative, sneaky look on her face. "You. You want into Diamond City, right?" The cat daemon finally deigns to look away from the gate, a sly glance of bright yellow eyes.

"I...uh...yes?"

Piper's grin is all teeth and no warmth. "Play along." She shifts her weight back toward the speaker, calling over her shoulder, "What was that? You're a trader up from Quincy? You have enough supplies to keep the general store stocked for a month? Huh." It's an obviously flawed plan, but Nora can't help but admire it for the sheer audacity. "You hear that, Danny? You going to open the gate and let us in? Or are you going to be the one talking to crazy Myrna about losing out on all this supply?"

There is a pause, uncomfortably long, and then the speaker flickers back to life. "Geez. Alright. No need to make it personal, Piper. Give me a minute." For a second, Nora thinks he won't open it after all, but then the gate creaks and begins to slowly raise.

"Better head inside real quick before ol' Danny catches onto the bluff. And, you know. Thanks," says Piper, quietly, as her daemon slips under the half-open gate. "I'm glad you turned up."

Nora smiles a little, ducking inside, "No problem. I  _did_ want in."

There is a red-faced man rushing down the ramp that leads into the stadium proper when Piper follows her, shouting as he comes, "Piper! Who let you back inside? I told Sullivan to keep the gate shut!" Both woman and daemon look unimpressed, cat sitting and beginning to delicately wash a paw. "You  _devious_ , rabble-rousing slanderer! The  _level_ of dishonesty in that paper of yours! I'll have that printer scrapped for parts!" He gestures wildly for emphasis, something—presumably his daemon?—wriggling in the breast pocket of his tattered suit.

Piper laughs with angry delight. "Is that a statement, Mr. McDonough? 'Tyrant mayor shuts down the press'?" Nora shifts toward the ramp into the stadium. This doesn't seem like a fight she needs to be involved in, necessarily. Moving catches Piper's attention, though, and she turns away from McDonough to spread her arms in a faux earnest pleading movement. "Why don't we ask the newcomer? You support the news? 'Cause the mayor's threatening to throw free speech in the dumpster."

Cesious flutters nervously, and Nora reaches up to stroke his head on reflex. "I…" she trails off with a half shrug, careful not to disturb her daemon's perch. Piper's daemon pauses his through paw cleansing to look at her, unblinking. "Freedom of the press is one of those fundamental rights, it's not something any one person can take away." Piper crows triumphantly.

"Exactly! He can't take away my newspaper.  _Mine_. Publick Occurrences. We're a hard look at the truth."

McDonough cuts in over top of her, turning to Nora with open arms. "Oh, I didn't mean to bring  _you_ into this argument, miss. No, no, you look like Diamond City material! Welcome to the great green jewel of the Commonwealth! Safe. Happy. A fine place to come, spend your money, settle down. Don't let this muckraker tell you otherwise, alright?"

Nora looks between them, eyebrows raised. The mayor is obsequious because, she thinks,  _he_ thinks she has money to spend. Piper is harder to read, trying to project an air of disinterest in all of this mess but clearly seething. With a sigh, she says, "It hasn't exactly been a very welcoming arrival."

"She's got you there, McDonough. Guess not everyone gets won over by that shark smile of yours."

"Er...my apologies for that, miss. You'd do well to keep away from troublemakers like Miss Wright here," he offers, and then turns to go back up the ramp, both pairs of woman and daemon watching him go.

Once he's crested the ramp, Piper's face softens into the first real smile Nora's seen from her, faintly embarrassed, and her cat daemon's posture relaxes. "Sorry for dragging you into all that, I just—my little sister and I live here, and it's just the two of us. I couldn't stay locked out with no one to take care of her." She gestures to her daemon, who blinks at Nora before standing and walking up the ramp, himself. "Kahòntsi and I appreciate it." She offers her hand. "I'm Piper."

Nora takes it, faintly surprised at the strong grip the other woman has, and then surprised at her surprise: these people who are surviving after the war are anything but weak. "Nora, and Cesious." On her shoulder, he ruffles his feathers in something like a bow, black eyes bright. His blue feathers are even more striking now, in the dirty ruins of civilization, without anything but the sky to compete in colour.

Piper slips her hand around Nora's elbow and turns them both to walk up the ramp, following Kahòntsi's black tail over the crest. "Delighted to make your acquaintance. I'd love to hear about how your daemon settled on  _that_. For purely journalistic reasons, of course."

Considering her options for a moment, Nora settles on the truth as the walk down into Diamond City. "Birds looked like him, before the war. He's a blue jay." She can almost feel Piper smiling beside her, even as she turns half away to take in the mass of shacks and dilapidated buildings that make up Diamond City.

"You," Piper says, "are going to make a  _very_ interesting article for the paper."

Nora suspects she won’t take no for an answer.


End file.
